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Witches (General; Compendium)

Only ever met one that claimed to be a Witch don't think she believed anything I said but her
cat believed in me, it would bring me strange things, a mole, a bat and a toad
among them all alive and kicking and released back to the wild I kid you not.
 
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I'm a witch myself and I know thousands of them, it's a very strange thing for someone to say that they ''don't believe in witches''... They might as well say that they don't believe in the existence of firemen.

Yes, I agree. Personally I like the word, that's what I prefer to use, though I don't have a specific ritual background like you do. It runs in my family, but they never had a name for it, besides "knowing", or perhaps the German word for wise. Occasionally my great aunts would use the word hex, but that was not something very openly discussed, though one of the great aunts was rumored to be highly skilled at it.

It was just something you knew and did, but there was no religious aspect attached to it.
 
La Befana: The Witch of Christmas
By Il Postino Staff and Tessa Derksen

The legend of Befana began thousands of years ago and remains to this day a tradition practised by Italian children and their families. As the story goes, one day, the three Magi left their country bearing special gifts of gold, incense and myrrh for the new-born Jesus Christ. They were guided by a star across many countries. At every village that they passed, people ran to meet them and accompany them in their journey.
But there was one old woman who did not join the Magi. She claimed to be too busy with her housework and promised to join them later when she had time. The next day, she realized her mistake and frantically ran after the Magi with gifts for the child, still clutching her broom. But it was too late – the Magi were long gone.

http://www.ottawaitalians.com/Heritage/befana.htm
 
I'm a witch myself and I know thousands of them, it's a very strange thing for someone to say that they ''don't believe in witches''... They might as well say that they don't believe in the existence of firemen.

I once met a girl that didn't believe in sharks :)
 
Yes, I agree. Personally I like the word, that's what I prefer to use, though I don't have a specific ritual background like you do. It runs in my family, but they never had a name for it, besides "knowing", or perhaps the German word for wise. Occasionally my great aunts would use the word hex, but that was not something very openly discussed, though one of the great aunts was rumored to be highly skilled at it.

It was just something you knew and did, but there was no religious aspect attached to it.
This is interesting. Forgive my directness and my ignorance, but what is the "Ït" you are alluding to in the phrases I've bolded? Do you possess these skills yourself? If so, what aspects of the craft have you been able to manifest? I'm intrigued. If divulging it isn't appropriate for you, just tell me to back off. I won't mind.
 
Robert Eggers, director of the brilliant film The Witch (2015 - set in 17th century America) gives a bit of background to his muse.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...errify-people-into-believing-in-witches-again

https://www.wired.com/2016/02/robert-eggers-set-design-how-he-made-the-witch-so-scary/

I have seen The Witch three times so far. It is very well-made, but I do ponder how authentic it is to the realities of the day. The vernacular is very well-played by the cast. The idea of a Caucasian witch deep in the wilderness did make me think hang on. I'd expected an Indigenous fringe dweller, but the idea of a hecate outcast wasn't too far for the imagination to travel once the mind had sifted through the possibilities.

My favourite scene is the arrival of the family at the field. The xtians basically handed their souls over to the landscape when they got there in their rapturous ecstasy. I'd like to know the cause of their banishment from the settlement, but it is left unsaid.
 
Robert Eggers, director of the brilliant film The Witch (2015 - set in 17th century America) gives a bit of background to his muse.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...errify-people-into-believing-in-witches-again

https://www.wired.com/2016/02/robert-eggers-set-design-how-he-made-the-witch-so-scary/

I have seen The Witch three times so far. It is very well-made, but I do ponder how authentic it is to the realities of the day. The vernacular is very well-played by the cast. The idea of a Caucasian witch deep in the wilderness did make me think hang on. I'd expected an Indigenous fringe dweller, but the idea of a hecate outcast wasn't too far for the imagination to travel once the mind had sifted through the possibilities.

My favourite scene is the arrival of the family at the field. The xtians basically handed their souls over to the landscape when they got there in their rapturous ecstasy. I'd like to know the cause of their banishment from the settlement, but it is left unsaid.

My impression was that the banishment was due to the father's interpretation of Scripture.
 
Was it. I'll have to have another look. If so, that'd be about pride, which is what draws his family deeper and deeper into the myre.
 
This is interesting. Forgive my directness and my ignorance, but what is the "Ït" you are alluding to in the phrases I've bolded? Do you possess these skills yourself? If so, what aspects of the craft have you been able to manifest? I'm intrigued. If divulging it isn't appropriate for you, just tell me to back off. I won't mind.

Hi Skinny,

Sorry it's taken me a while to answer, because it's a complex question - hard not to go on for 20 pages trying to describe it!

The "it" I suppose, would be what they called "Weise" which is a German word for wise, which seemed to also mean cunning or healer as well. although if it's used this way in modern German, I don't know. That was just the way my grandmother and her sisters used it, along with "knowing". The story went that this trait passed down the female line of a family, but if it happened to land on a man, it would be extremely strong. Their mother had it, as well as their grandmother and her brother. My grandmother's mother was a respected healer (indeed, my mother recalls being cured of what should have been fatal blood poisoning as a child, by use of herbs) and their uncle also had an interesting, if spooky, reputation throughout the area.

There are a lot of stories there, but would take too much time to write. I will provide them if asked, though.

My grandmother was supposed to be trained as a healer, but she married a religious man who forbade it. One of her sisters and cousins were trained instead. My grandfather (who enjoyed forbidding things)* tried to stop this from being discussed at all, but the stories leaked out anyway when he wasn't around.

Grandmother and one of her sisters had very large families, and the children in turn had families, all with a significant number of girls. Whether or not the legend about this trait running through the female line was true, it certainly looked that way. When my generation was beginning to grow up, a number us came down with what I can only describe as an intense craving for esoteric knowledge, along with a gut-feeling for how it was supposed to work.

Last year I wrote a couple of blog posts that touched on this, that might be clearer than anything I can produce right now -
http://victoriaphantasmagoria.blogspot.com/2016/02/strange-days.html
http://victoriaphantasmagoria.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-mysteries-of-fate-and-other.html

Because of our grandfather, we didn't have the more unfettered knowledge that my great-aunt's grandchildren had, so we were always searching for other sources and information. This might have muddied any sense of "pure" knowledge that had been passed down from our forebears, but for all I know this constant searching and experimenting was part of the family trait. If you recall your thread about how we relate to the world, this is the reason why I was so actively searching in a way that led to my mystical experience at 14 years.

Two of my cousins have the healing gift, and it's interesting that they both went into nursing and social work. This trait seems to have missed me, except for one thing I seem to have inherited from my grandmother's uncle. If someone was agitated or violent, all he had to do was touch them and they'd instantly calm down, as if they'd been sedated. Apparently I can do this too, though I didn't even notice this was unusual until other people started talking about it.(Note: this developed unexpectedly around age 30)

One other cousin is more like me in that her interests tend to lie in divination, reading signs and symbols, spells and things like that. We've both had more ghostly types of experiences than the others - that seems to be our thing.

As for the two men in the family who seem to have got "it" in our generation - well, aside from their many curious experiences, the world just seems to give them what they want. They aren't manipulative or anything, both very polite, it's just...they can pull things in when they want them. It's not magic as we tend to think of it, but an inner ability. Then again, neither one of them followed the more intensive practices that our grandmother's uncle had. No telling what it would have been like if that were the case!

This may all sound like a tale of inter-generational madness (and for all I know, maybe it is) but that's been the experience, anyway.

*Regarding my grandfather - he was a hypocrite, because he was heavily involved with a spirit-medium and hoo-doo lady the whole time.
 
There are a lot of stories there, but would take too much time to write. I will provide them if asked, though.

I'm sure loads of us would like to hear more about this, so I'm asking. No rush though.

If someone was agitated or violent, all he had to do was touch them and they'd instantly calm down, as if they'd been sedated. Apparently I can do this too, though I didn't even notice this was unusual until other people started talking about it.(Note: this developed unexpectedly around age 30)

Who did you sedate and under what circumstances?

As for the two men in the family who seem to have got "it" in our generation - well, aside from their many curious experiences, the world just seems to give them what they want. They aren't manipulative or anything, both very polite, it's just...they can pull things in when they want them. It's not magic as we tend to think of it, but an inner ability.

Again, I would love to know anything that has happened to these two fellows in respect of 'pulling things in'.
 
Radio 4 ex Thurs 8th 1:30 and 8:30 The Curse of Pendle
about the Pendle Witch trials.
 
Thank you, Ulalume. Much appreciated. That is quite a heritage. The blog provides a lot of interesting background too. If you update the blog from time to time, I'll stay patient for content there. Plenty to read in the meantime. The two linked pages you supplied were fascinating. Nothing like that in my own family heritage at all.

PS: The B/W images on the 2011 page are beautiful. Nature never looked so unwordly.
here http://victoriaphantasmagoria.blogspot.com.au/2011/
 
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WHY THE CHURCHGOING FAMILY OF A WITCH SAY THEY'RE PLEASED HE FOUND THE CRAFT
Ashley Mortimer talks to The Independent about the reactions he has received to telling people he is a witch

OLIVIA BLAIR
@livblair
14 hours ago

Of all the things to reveal to your church-going family members, announcing you are a witch might be one of the most difficult.

Ashley Mortimer, 48, is a witch from the contemporary Pagan pathWicca. Wiccans trace the movement back to the British man Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Wiccans practise witchcraft and honour the Divine.

Mortimer’s parents belong to the Church of England so he anticipated the reveal of his spirituality might not go down so well.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...hurch-of-england-spells-potions-a7682951.html
 
Hi Dave, I've been gathering the energy to answer your questions. I finally feel up to it today. Sorry for the delay!
I'm sure loads of us would like to hear more about this, so I'm asking. No rush though.

All this happened long before my time, but this is some of what I know from relatives -

Karl, my grandmother's uncle, was known for being able to do practical things like predict the weather (which was important in a farming community), blood-stopping and curing minor illness, as well as more unusual abilities. According to my grandmother, he was known to have predicted World War 1 (although that would have been before her time) and my own mother recalls, when she was very young, being there when he predicted the outbreak of World War 2. She said that he made this prediction based on the patterns and colors in the sky. He died not too long afterwards, so this is one of her few memories of him.

He was known to have seen a UFO, a glowing shape hovering in the sky above the fields. This was before airplanes had even been invented, certainly before the 20th century UFO flaps began. Interestingly, there are still UFO sightings in that area today.

My grandmother and great-aunts said that he had an unusual affect on people. Back in those days, there were dance halls, where the people from the scattered farming communities would gather to drink and dance on weekends. Sometimes fighting would break out, and then someone would run to get Karl. They said that when he'd walk in, the crowd would part like the red sea. He'd just walk up to the fighting drunks and lay hands on them, and they'd slump over as if all the fight had gone out of them. I suppose this effect was a bit like one might see at a faith-healing.

In their village at one point, there were also problems with drunken violence. People shooting up the houses and beating their wives - that sort of thing. The details are hazy now, but my great-aunt said that Karl took a certain book - a spell book of some type - and buried it on (IIRC) a night of the full moon, and (also IIRC) stuck a pocket knife into the ground at the spot, I suppose to fix the spell in place. The violence came to an end after that.

According to both my grandmother and one of her sisters, when they were about 10 and 11 they went out for a ride out in Karl's model T. Again, this was way out in the country, where you wouldn't expect to see many other cars even today, and especially not then. The model T broke down, and the girls were panicked because they were so far from home. Karl told them not to worry, he would have someone (another relative of theirs) come out to help. The girls were confused by this, as how could this be possible? They said that Karl was cagey about this, just smiling and telling them to wait and see. Soon, said relative pulls up behind them in his car, gets out and proceeds to fix the Model T, without a word. They said that was the weirdest thing, that he didn't speak a word, just looked as if he were in a trance the whole time. Then he just got back in his car and drove home. Grandmother and great-aunt credited this to Karl's uncanny power over people.

The flat-out weirdest story that I can remember, one that even I find hard to credit (but the women swore up and down was true) is about what happened at the tank. The girls were around 10 to 14 at this time, so this must have been in the 1920's. There was a tank on their farm, that is to say, a watering hole. One day they went for a swim. Uncle Karl called out for them to look, then just marched straight out to the middle of the tank, on top of the water.
The girls thought it was a neat trick, so they swam over to find out how he'd done it. They swam underneath him to find out what he was standing on, but there was nothing. They grabbed his feet, but they couldn't pull him down. He just stood there laughing. He would never tell his secret, either, just laugh!

For years, various family members have tried to figure out how he might have pulled this off outside of something supernatural. Even if he could have acquired the materials to create such a trick, the sticking point is that the girls could feel the soles of his old work boots from beneath the water. That leaves out optical illusions as well.

Knowing those women, I believe they told the story as they experienced it. They were not at all inclined to lie or make up tall tales. They were sturdy, practical country women who knew BS when they saw it. They only had basic educations, but they were all intelligent. They were certainly convinced something strange had happened at the tank that day.

Later, when I read the Carlos Castaneda books, this story made me think of something Don Juan would have done.

Who did you sedate and under what circumstances?

LOL, well, I'm not quite as good as a horse tranquilizer, but it came about like this:

The town where I used to live had an unusually high rate of mental illness and homelessness, both. Someone did a study and found it was 30 percent higher than other similarly-sized counties. There were myriad reasons for this, but
it was not unheard of to come across someone wandering around in the midst of a psychotic break.

Were we lived at the time, it also wasn't uncommon for people who were unwell to pass through, especially since we were near a hospital with the only psych ward in town. We might hear a ruckus outside and there was someone having a freak-out in the courtyard. I very often felt compelled to comfort them and try to find someone who could help. I was often successful at this, but figured it was because I knew how to talk to them.

However, other people began to mention that the disturbed people were going calm when I touched them. Soon, other people were calling me to come calm someone down. I began to think about what people said about Uncle Karl.

I felt this was confirmed when for a while I took up palm-reading. (This was supposed to be a lark, but didn't turn out that way.) When reading someone's palm, they would often mention that my touch was making them feel relaxed, chilled-out or sleepy. One person said it was as if they'd taken a muscle relaxer. Perhaps I'm just that boring, but maybe it's the same trait of Uncle Karl's.

BTW, I gave up palm reading because I didn't like what I was seeing. It's not like tarot, it's not as mutable. I saw death in one man's palm and didn't know how to handle it. I told him to look after his health and keep up with his doctor's advice, but he died anyway. I felt I shouldn't be seeing these things if there is nothing I can do to help.

Again, I would love to know anything that has happened to these two fellows in respect of 'pulling things in'.

I've got to go out for a bit, but will answer this question when I get back. :)
 
You and Karl are related to Jesus?
 
You and Karl are related to Jesus?
erm... no, not unless Jesus had relatives in Northern Germany. :p

I honestly don't know what happened with the water incident, but I do believe my grandmother and her sisters believed it.
 
Again, I would love to know anything that has happened to these two fellows in respect of 'pulling things in'.
Sorry, I got insanely busy, but finally I'm back to answer now.
The two guys in question, let's call them Man 1 and Man 2, for simplicity's sake.

Man 1 has a knack for getting whatever job he wants, despite being a quiet and introverted person. Let's just say he isn't wowing prospective employers with his gregarious charm and confidence. But he'll just decide to have this job, then he'll get it. I recall years ago him pointing out which job listings he knew were "his."

He also thinks it's funny to travel with no more money than some loose change. This is partly because he's a cheapskate, but also because he can do it. This would scare me (who always has to over prepare) but for him, somehow he knows everything will work out. Man 1 is getting up there in years and he hasn't run out of gas once. Riding with him can be quite nerve-wracking. I'll be shouting that he can't possibly drive 70 miles on nothing but fumes and he'll say oh, wanna bet? :rolleyes: But he does it, don't ask me how. It just seems to work, like most everything else does for him.

Perhaps more interesting is that Man 1 has had numerous times when he heard a voice or had a vision warning of approaching danger.

Once, while waiting for someone in a parking lot, he heard a voice in his ear tell him to start the car, drive around the block and park on the other side. He did so, and another car pulled into the same spot. Minutes later, a man came out of a building, walked right to that car and took the driver hostage at gunpoint. Another time, Man 1 was driving on a busy interstate when he had an vision of his front axle breaking. He quickly exited onto a frontage road, just as the axle broke. If he hadn't pulled off the highway, he might have been killed. As it was, he was merely inconvenienced.

There are a lot of stories like those. I just noticed how many have to do with driving. Perhaps that's when his gift works the best. There's plenty of other weirdness with him, though. Also, I have to be careful not to think about him too hard lest I summon him. I joke, but he has an alarming tendency to show up when we think or talk about him with a certain amount of focus. (I'm looking over my shoulder right now.)

Man 2 has a gift for winning contests. He's won loads of free groceries and free gas, computers, vacations... you name it. I don't think he enters contests more frequently than most, he just knows when he's going to win. Once we went into a store where they were gong to have a drawing for a year's supply of products. Man 2 says to me. "yes, I'm going to win this one" and drops his entry form into the box. By the time we got home, the phone was already ringing to tell him he was the winner. He has a quiet but certain knowledge about these things.

Lawks, I just remembered that someone once gave him a sports car, a really cute one, too. The owner decided he had too many cars, so just gave one away. (why don't I ever meet these people?)

Man 2 also has had no problem finding gainful employment where ever he wants it. If he would like to move somewhere else, he just waits for the offer to show up, without even needing to seek it out. His life is notably peaceful and content. He isn't interested in winning something big like the lottery. He would rather focus on contentment than wealth.

Whether Man 2 directly uses any kind of witchcraft to facilitate his good luck these days, I don't know, but certainly he has in the past.

Both men, despite being "science-y" types, I daresay even science nerds, have no conflict between that and a belief that magic and witchcraft are real and effective.
 
Are You Descended From Witches? New Digital Document Could Help You Find Out
The Wellcome Library manuscript lists people accused of witchcraft during the Scottish witch panic of 1658-1662

By Jason Daley
SMITHSONIAN.COM OCTOBER 31, 2016

Walpurgisnacht), London’s Wellcome Library, which specializes in medical text and history, has digitized Manuscript 3658, Names of Witches in Scotland, 1658. The ledger records all the men and women accused of witchcraft in Scotland in between 1658 and 1662, during the apex of a century-long witch scare. According to a press release, the bound book contains the names of the accused, their town and notes about their “confessions,” which likely took place under some sort of torture.

According to The Scotsman, about 3,000 to 5,000 people in Scotland were publicly accused of witchcraft in 16th and 17th centuries, spurred on by the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563, which made witchcraft a crime punishable by death. That Act was vague, both in its definition of witchcraft and in how to identify witchcraft. At least 2,000 people were killed for being witches before the Act was repealed in 1736.




Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...p-you-find-out-180960952/#3jM2tUoZ2LkEWLzj.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
 
Been to visit the grave of a local Witch, the glove gives a little scale, buried
in a church yard vertically and head down to confuse her and hopefully if she
tried to dig her way out she would only dig her self deeper.
The grave is well tended and a few tributes have been left she is remembered
long after her persecutors have been forgotten.



https://1drv.ms/i/s!AiD6OecFp2cSkGOT-0mJUdEZezfw

RIP Meg
 
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I am related to St Ambrose Barlow who was hung drawn and quarterd on Gallows
Hill on 10th. September 1641. same place as the Lancashire witches, his head
was supposedly removed and kept at the bishop of Manchester's residence maybe
still is.
 
Some tasty tales out of Mexico midway through this video. Have we any threads on Mexican witch encounters? These seem to have their own unique flavour of madness.

Forward to 17:30.
 
From references to Doreen Valiente early in this thread about Chanctonbury Ring, I linked eventually to the wiki on the Bricket Wood coven. This photo from the wiki shows the door of the ritual house they used from the mid 50s to the late 60s. More images at the wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricket_Wood_coven

How's the vibe of this thing!
Witches_Hut_2006_door_close_up..JPG
 
Looking at that door, it does look as though someone's set fire to it in the past. Eerie.

Now I know why they call it Bricket Wood.
 
Police in south-west Germany are investigating after an 18-year-old spectator suffered second-degree burns at an annual "witches' parade".

Some witnesses said that the woman was carried to a cauldron in jest before being thrown knee-deep into hot water.

Others present reported the woman was held over the cauldron at the carnival in Eppingen on Saturday, police said.

The screaming woman was abandoned at the roadside by the "witches", they said.

She was later taken to hospital.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42953975
 
Romania's CybeWitches.

CONSIDER IT GLOBALIZATION of the supernatural: Thanks to the proliferation of the internet, the Romanian witch community—also known as the vrăjitoare—has migrated their ancient practice onto the web. Using social media to livestream rituals or to video chat with clients for fortune readings, witch entrepreneurs are better able to grow their business using self-referential devices (clothing, jewelry, idols) to effectively market the storied mysticism of Roma women to searching souls.

Members of the vrăjitoare learn the craft from their mothers at age 7, after careful observation of whether they are capable of continuing the tradition. Other witches claim they were born with a "gift" from God that enables them to communicate with divine energy. Only women are able to join the vrăjitoare. Witchcraft is a respected (and feared) profession in Romania, a country where the president is known to wear purple on certain days to ward off evil. The practice is even regulated: In 2011, a new law required the vrăjitoare to pay a 16 percent income tax, the same as any other self-employed Romanian citizen. The response was twofold. Some supported the tax, arguing that it established witchcraft as a verifiable profession, while others angrily threw poisonous mandrake plants into the Danube River.

https://www.wired.com/story/romania... NL 031519 (1)&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl
 
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